Philippians 4:8
I want you to be aware that a little dwarfed man who was running a scam here locally was recently caught by police. He was pretending to be a channeller, a spirit medium – someone who can communicate with the dead – and he was scamming people. So, they put him in our local prison. But he’s so small, he actually slipped through the bars and escaped. Right now, local authorities want us to be on the lookout for a small medium at large.
I’m actually going to use the word “media” a lot – that just means the same as “mediums” – but not spirit mediums! It describes the ways that are used to deliver a message – like TV, music, radio, the internet, smoke signals, books, and public speaking. These are “the media” that we use today to communicate, and they’re an important part of our lives.
The media are powerful. Are they just reporting what’s happening, or do they affect what will happen? There have been a lot of discussions concerning just how much the news should report and how much it should withhold; Wikileaks was introduced 5 years ago, and has led to a long list of controversy over media. The news media have to be careful, because they have the ability to incite panic.
Ill - It happened the day before Halloween, on Oct. 30, 1938, when millions of Americans tuned in to a radio program that featured plays by Orson Welles. The performance that evening was an adaptation of the science fiction novel The War of the Worlds, about a Martian invasion of the earth. But Welles made an important change: under his direction the play was written and performed so it would sound like an actual news broadcast about an invasion from Mars. It was supposed to heighten the dramatic effect. It did. Thousands of people across the US went into a panic, thinking that the US was actually being overrun by Martians, starting in New Jersey.
In the New York Tribune, Dorothy Thompson wrote: "…Mr. Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater of the Air have made one of the most fascinating and important demonstrations of all time. They have proved that a few effective voices, accompanied by sound effects, can convince masses of people of a totally unreasonable, completely fantastic proposition as to create a nation-wide panic.”
I’ll tell you what, a few effective voices, accompanied by sound effects, can still convince masses of people of totally unreasonable, completely fantastic propositions today. And they are!
Radio was a mainline medium in 1938. And it proved just how powerful it could be. It was the next year in NY that the World’s Fair showcased television, and regular broadcasting began and hasn’t stopped since. 1957, Sputnik was launched and opened up the space age and the beginnings of global communications. Sometime after that, Al Gore invented the internet, and now I can instantly communicate with someone on the other side of the world for next to nothing.
The reality of media and the way they shape our lives is amazing. Time may change things a bit, but try this - let’s marvel for a minute. Here, finish these with me:
• Ask any mermaid you happen to see, “What’s the best tuna?” (Chicken of the Sea)
• The best part of waking up, is (Folgers in your cup)
• Red Lobster for the (seafood lover in you)
• Mmm, mmm, good, Mmm, mmm, good, that’s what (Campbell’s soups are, Mmm, mmm, good,)
• Gimme a break, gimme a break, break me off a piece of that (Kit Kat Bar)
• I am stuck on (Band Aid) cause Band Aid stuck on me!
• Five. Five dollar. Five dollar (footlongs)!
• They keep going and going and going and going (Energizer)
Now finish this with me:
• A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing. (Our helper, He, amid the flood…)
• Great is the Lord, He is holy and just (by His power we trust, in His love)
• Before the world was made, before You spoke it to be, (You were the King of kings, yeah You were)
There’s more than just music to the media. I’ll bet you can finish these slogans:
• Pardon me, do you have any (Grey Poupon?)
• Melts in your mouth, not (in your hand)
• Behold, the power of (cheese)!
OK. Now finish this with me:
• Bless the Lord, Oh my soul, and forget not (all His benefits)
• For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was (rich yet for your sakes, He became poor)
• In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and (the word was God)
Let’s try some pictures. Can you name these colorful people?
• Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, Ross – the cast from “Friends”
• Can you name some of these? Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez, Randy Jackson - the judges from American Idol
• How about the 3 stooges? What are their names? Moe, Larry and Curly
Now, let’s try a few others.
• Can you name 6 of the tribes of Israel?
• How about 8 of the Apostles?
Let’s try a life situation. Let’s say a friend comes to you with a dilemma. She has a friend who has something against her, and she’s not sure if she should say anything or not.
What’s your point of reference? Is it from the media: “I saw a movie where…” or “It’s like a song I heard…” or “I read a story once where…”?
Or is your response more like, “That reminds me of an OT story…” or “That reminds me of what Jesus said…”
Are you marveling yet? The media have shaped our lives and continue to do so every day because our consumer-driven world is saturated by them.
You can tell it by what we know and can remember. You can also tell it by the number of Christians in the Church today who approach life with a very worldly point of view when it comes to truth, relationships, marriage, language, modesty, finances, and a whole other list of subjects where they don’t think any differently from other people.
It shouldn’t really be a surprise when you begin to add up the amount of our lives we devote to the media and compare it to other things. A George Barna poll shows that on a percentage basis more Christian teens watch MTV than non-Christians! 42% vs. 33%!
As of November 2009, there were nearly 115 million TV homes in the US. 29.9% of those have four or more televisions. 25.1% have three sets, 28.3% have two, and 16.7 percent have a measly single TV.
That computes to nearly 329 million TV sets -- more than the entire US population, estimated at 307 million by the US Census Bureau.
103.6 million U.S. homes are cable- or satellite-ready. Approximately 51 million American homes have digital cable.
US consumers watch more TV than the rest of the world. 49% of us say we watch it too much. 49% of us are right! In the past 2 years, there has been more change in our media consumption than in the 30 years before that. Most people spend over ½ of their day consuming media – more time than working or sleeping. 35% of our leisure time is spent watching TV. And, by the way, it’s not because of kids watching up to 5:54 a day. It gets worse with age.
And what’s coming in through that TV? From 1989 to 1999, on a per-hour basis, sexual content more than tripled. Foul language was up 5½X, and was far harsher. References to homosexuality were more than 24X more common. UPN’s WWF Smackdown by itself was responsible from more than 11% of all the combined sex, cursing, and violence in 1999.
Using absolute totals, across all networks use of profanity on prime-time broadcast entertainment programming increased 69.3% from 2005 to 2010.
That’s just TV. That doesn’t even address the internet and the number of internet active smart phones in use right now.
There’s more, but I don’t have time to talk about movies, magazines, radio, cd’s and MP3 players.
You can try to wish things were like they used to be. They won’t be.
What are we to do? We can’t stop the use of media. We can’t leave our homes, or even stay in them, and be totally free of it. How can our homes survive our media intake?
Have you done your homework? Our use of media is a vital issue in our homes. And real quickly this morning I want to suggest some biblical guidelines for navigating this very relevant issue.
When it comes to today’s media…
I. Begin With Right Priorities
I already addressed this at the beginning of this month. When asked, “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?
Matthew 22:36-39
Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'”
It’s this simple: our love for God has to exceed our love for the media.
It’s time we reassessed in our homes our supposed “need” for entertainment. I joke about how babies have changed in the past 50 years. They didn’t used to need all the gadgets they have now. It’s a wonder anyone over 50 years old made it past infancy! Now, I’m grateful for a lot of those gadgets – like disposable diapers, and wind-up swings. But you and I both know that babies haven’t changed – adults have - and we want those things for our kids now days. Pretty soon, those extra things start to seem like needs to us, rather than conveniences.
I encourage you to look at every bit of entertainment in the same way. It was prosperity and boredom and the pursuit of entertainment that led the Romans to gather at the coliseum to watch people fight to the death or to watch Christians being thrown to wild animals to be ripped apart. They wanted to be entertained, and the more they were entertained, the more they wanted more.
If you take a look at the word “recreation,” you can appreciate that it’s a gift from God. It’s the idea that we need to stop from working sometimes and be “re-created,” to be rested and refreshed and renewed so that we can be fit to work again.
“Entertainment” is about being diverted, amused, or preoccupied with something. While I don’t find anywhere in the Bible that condemns entertainment, neither do I find anywhere that the Bible recommends it. If our pursuit of entertainment, instead of re-creating us, is draining our resources and energies and diverting us from what’s important in life, we’ve got it wrong. What’s getting your time, your mind, your money? We need to begin with right priorities.
Proverbs 3:21
My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight;
It would be good if we could all spend some time in a 3rd-world country with people there and just be reminded of how much in our lives is really not a necessity. Entertainment would be at the top of the list.
God wants our love for Him as the top of what really matters in life.
When it comes to today’s media…
II. Show Concern for Others
Paul was writing to Christians who lived in the middle of a very pagan society. Sometimes, there were questions about just how much a Christian could participate in that society – could they buy and eat meat that had been sacrificed in a pagan temple? What about alcoholic drinks? When it comes to things like that that are non-essentials, we need to think about how that’s going to affect the people around us.
Romans 14:19-21
Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
Romans 15:1
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.
I have to eat and drink, but what I choose is an area of freedom where I need to give attention to how it affects others. And I want to suggest that our use of media has to fall under the same guidelines. “It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.”
When someone knows you’re a Christian, they’re watching you. Maybe they’re your kids at home. Maybe they’re someone at work who respects you. Maybe it’s someone at school. Maybe you don’t even realize it, but someone is watching you.
They’re waiting to see if it’s all just talk. They’re waiting to see if life in Jesus really does work. They need to know, from your choices, if calling yourself a Christian means anything or not.
So, what movie do they see you going to? What video do they see you renting? What TV program do they hear you speaking about? What music is playing on your stereo? What poster do you have on your wall? Whose book are you reading? Those are all optional things, just like what you eat. You don’t have to do any of them. Are you showing concern for others, or just pleasing yourself?
Quote - Philip Yancey, Christianity Today - Why do they hate us? Ever since September 11, Americans have been asking that question… I recently listened to a panel of experts address the Why do they hate us? question in an all-day forum.
One panelist mentioned the Baywatch syndrome. That television program, which features hunks and babes cavorting on the beaches of California, replaced Dallas as the most popular television export. We are attracted to what we most fear, said one thoughtful Muslim. Imagine what American culture represents to a young Muslim who, outside his family, has never seen a woman's knee, or even her face. Much of the world draws conclusions about the Christian West from MTV, Baywatch and violent movies… How differently would the world view us if it associated the United States with Jesus rather than Baywatch?”
I have a feeling that if we as a nation were really showing concern for others we’d be exporting something other Baywatch. And if we in our homes are concerned for others, people are going to see better choices. Someone is watching you. Are you concerned about what they see?
When it comes to today’s media…
III. Reflect Godly Thinking
Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
Underline it! Highlight it! Write it on your refrigerator and your bathroom mirror! Make it the wallpaper on your cellphone! Print it out on your computer, and tape it above your TV! Then, when the message that the media is trying to convey to you comes up, put it to the test: Noble? Right? Pure? Lovely? Admirable? Excellent? Praiseworthy? If it’s not, get something else to think about!
Exercise discernment – that simply means taking these guidelines and using them to make a good judgment based on truth.
Or try pasting this one above your TV and computer:
Psalms 101:3
I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me.
Does your use of the media reflect Godly thinking?
Begin with right priorities. Show concern for others. Reflect Godly thinking.
Now, let’s go to some positive steps we can take in our homes to help this happen.
Applications to help:
1. Focus on positive use of media
Let’s acknowledge that the media present the greatest opportunity the Church has ever known, and we are largely failing to take advantage of it.
Some of it’s because of fear. We see it used for evil means, so we label the whole thing evil. We see that it’s something new, and assume that it can’t be used in the Church because it’s new.
(One day, we’ll probably be saying, “I wish we could sing the old praise choruses off of a screen like we used to do!”)
The fact is, media are neutral. The same paper used to print lies of all kinds can be used to print God’s word. The same internet that is used to market pornography can be used to spread the gospel! Movie theaters that are used to corrupt peoples’ minds can also be used to fill them with right thinking. DVDs can play great videos for your family just as well as crummy ones.
Ill - Over by Ozark Christian College, across Turkey Creek, sits GNPI. For over 30 years now, Good News has been producing God’s word using different media, to the point that they’re reaching millions of people in over 96 countries, 105 languages, on a daily basis.
Ill – 1455, a German craftsman, Johann Gutenberg, took a Chinese idea, the printing press, and made it to have moveable type. Gutenberg’s invention of a mass-media device has now been labeled the most significant event of the 2nd millennium. His first job produced 200 Bibles. And while a corrupt church suppressed it at first, it was that medium that helped people to read the Bible and helped to transform the church.
You notice that we have video and other stuff going on during our services. That’s not because we’re trying to keep up with society. It’s because anything at our hands that we can use to get the message to people ought to be used.
God gave man the ability to discover and develop the media. The Church ought to be at the forefront of exploiting them, rather than handing it all over to a consumer-driven society to use for their own means.
2. Exercise discernment in the midst of media.
1 Thessalonians 5:21-22
Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.
Paul says in I Co 5 that to not associate with greedy or immoral people you’d have to leave the world. We’re not going to be able to avoid exposure to media, but we do have the chance to judge what we’ll listen to and look at and read. We’re not going to be able to follow our kids around every minute of the day – so we need to be training them to do I Thess 5:21-22. We can’t possibly make a list of every bit of media that must be avoided. It’s changing every day. But we can teach ourselves and our kids how to discern good from bad and how to hold on to the good while avoiding every kind of evil.
We can take even a bad word or bad scene that pops up and make it a point of discussion – a learning experience where we exercise our muscles of discernment, and our kids learn how to do it.
3. Practice learning the difference between what’s necessary and what’s entertainment.
What if, at least day a week, the TV didn’t come on at all? What if, for some period of time, the radio was never on, or you lived without the internet or cell phone? What if, when you normally would have gone to see a movie, you stayed home and played a game as a family?
Over time, you’d rediscover how our lives have gotten filled up with unnecessaries, to the point where we let them crowd out what really matters.
Try it. Try giving up entertainment in the name of focusing on what’s really necessary. You won’t die!
Conclusion:
What is really necessary?
When Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to Him speaking, He said to her sister, “Only a few things are necessary, really only one. And she has chosen the better thing.”
What is really important this morning is not if you’ve seen the latest movie. It’s not if you are up on the soaps. It’s not if you can sing along with the radio or surf the internet or how fast you can text.
What is really important is you love Jesus enough to let Him have control of your life. That’s what He wants – for you to make His desires your desires.
Benediction:
Psalm 19:13-14
Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
